version: "1.0.0" name: invite-motion description: >- Use after audience-machine, or when the user says "write the invite", "invitation copy", "nobody is RSVPing", "send the invites", "we need more people to come", "no-shows". Designs the wave structure, writes the invitation in the right register for the sender, and runs confirmation discipline so confirmed guests actually arrive. Writes workspace/events/<event>/invites/.

Invite Motion

Get the right people to say yes, and then to actually turn up. Two different problems, and the second one is where most events quietly lose a quarter of the room.

When to use

• After audience-machine. The list exists first
• RSVPs are slow, or the wrong profile
• No-show rate is high on confirmed guests
• A recurring event where the invite motion should be systematized

Inputs

• Reads: workspace/audience/target-list.csv, workspace/events/<event>/decision.md, workspace/program/charter.md
• Needs from user: the sender or senders (actual named people), the date, venue, format, and what the guest actually gets

Workflow

1. Choose the sender before writing a word

The single biggest driver of response. In descending order of yield:

1. Your executive, to a peer, personally
2. A mutual connection making a warm introduction
3. The account owner who already has a relationship
4. A named marketer, personally
5. A company address or an event platform

For a Tier 1 name, anything below the top three is wasting the name. Match the sender's seniority to the guest's.

2. Design the wave structure

Not one send. Waves, with a purpose each:

Hold seats back through Wave 2. A room that fills on the first wave with the wrong mix cannot be corrected later, and a room that looks slightly under-subscribed at T-4 is normal.

Anchor guests first. "X is joining us" is the most effective line in the entire invitation, and it only exists if you invited X before everyone else.

3. Write the invitation

For private events, the invitation is a personal note, not a marketing email.

What works:

• Three to six sentences from a named human
• Why this person specifically, in a clause that could not be sent to anyone else
• Who else will be in the room, named where you have permission, or characterized precisely where you do not
• The topic, framed as a conversation rather than a presentation
• Date, city, and what it involves, stated plainly
• One clear ask, and an easy way to say yes

What kills it: a designed HTML template for a dinner, "we are excited to invite you", the word "exclusive", a registration page for a fifteen-person table, an agenda that mentions your product, or any sentence that could have been sent to a thousand people.

For larger owned events and webinars a designed invitation is appropriate. The dividing line is roughly fifty people: below that, personal always outperforms designed.

Include what is not happening. For executive dinners, saying "no presentation, no pitch, just the conversation" in the invitation raises acceptance measurably, because the recipient's default assumption is the opposite.

4. Handle the follow-up

Most yeses come on the second touch. Plan two, at minimum:

• Non-responders get a short follow-up five to seven days later, on the same thread, from the same sender, adding a piece of new information such as another confirmed guest
• Tier 1 non-responders get a phone call, not a third email
• A no gets a gracious reply and a note in the list for next time. Today's no is frequently next quarter's yes

5. Run confirmation discipline

Where the no-show rate is won:

A guest who has confirmed twice in the final week shows up. A guest who accepted six weeks ago and heard nothing since does not.

Expect and plan for 10 to 20% no-show on confirmed guests. Above 25%, confirmation discipline is broken, not the guest list.

6. Manage the waitlist

Keep one, tell people they are on it, and release seats as declines come in. A waitlist is also social proof, and it is honest social proof if you actually have one.

7. Quality gate

Every invitation runs through writing-quality before it sends. An invitation that reads as automated to a senior executive is worse than no invitation, because it burns a name you cannot easily re-approach.

Output

• Writes: workspace/events/<event>/invites/ with copy per wave and sender, the confirmation sequence, and the wave calendar
• Prints: the wave schedule with counts, the copy, the confirmation cadence, and the current RSVP position against the composition goal

Rules & quality bar

• Sender seniority matches guest seniority. Tier 1 gets a peer
• Waves, not a single send. Anchor guests first, fill last
• Under fifty people, the invitation is a personal note. No templates, no registration pages
• Two touches minimum on non-responders. Tier 1 gets a call
• Confirmation at acceptance, T-2 weeks, T-1 week, T-2 days, T-1 day
• Every invitation runs through `writing-quality`
• No fabricated guest names. Only name confirmed attendees, and only with permission

Related skills

• Reads: audience-machine
• Pairs with: meeting-engine (for conferences), the format skills
• Gated by: writing-quality, optionally artifact-eval